Film Lit is a highly sought after class at West Side. In this class, avid movie-goers get the chance to test out their cinematic skills.

As it turns out, students at West Side are successful at translating their interests into their projects.  “There hasn’t been a bad one yet [this year],” said Film Lit teacher Mr. Shaeffer.

Effort and creativity are keys to a good video.  “The most important thing is the willingness to refuse to except good,” said Shaeffer.  When students continuously strive to make their videos exceptional, they never fail to be impressive.    Shaeffer looks for good shot selection, group participation, and because good acting isn’t required, bad acting always provides some good humor for everyone.

Some of the best videos this year include “The Hunger Games”, made by Erin Sommer, Emily Field, and Kaitlyn LaPlant which was a parody of the popular novel and film. Also,  West Side Images video “El Detente” by Asher Trout, Dimitri James, and Chris Shin. “We had careful editing, creative shots, and a good soundtrack,” said James. “El Detente” is available for viewing on James’s Facebook page.

A couple videos also stand out in Mr. Shaeffer’s mind from years past.  One is “Dead Man Hay” by Darin Larimore, Becca Jones, Scott Proctor, Sam Owens, and Tegan Hogan.  Jones said, “We put a lot of effort into it, and Darin’s editing/sound work made the filer trailer super dramatic.”  Another standout was called “The Plan”, made by Hayden Smith, Evan Smith, Evan Leuck, and David Raley.

But of course, with the good there is also the bad. Whenever you can tell there is very little forethought and “the plan is to improvise”, said Shaeffer, you can count on it not going so well.

All in all, the students of West Side prove talented in the world of cinema.

Becca Jones and her classmates pose for their Film Lit poster. Their trailer, “Dead Man Hay”, was set in the corn fields and was a horror film.